TikTok inspired investment platform Zeed has secured a £205,000 pre-seed investment to help produce exclusive content.
The funding round was led by SFC Capital, a UK-based early-stage investment firm.
With the capital, Zeed plans to hire more staff and bolster its product.
Zeed was co-founded by Salman Hussain and Rohan Regmi, Imperial College London and UCL graduates, respectively. Whilst at university, they built Finance-Focused, a 5,000+ member community for early careers in the financial services industry.
A survey of Finance-Focused found that 87% of its members, the majority of which were Gen Z, felt that a lack of access to information prevented them from making an investment. It also found that their preferred way to ingest information was through short videos. This led to the creation of Zeed.
The FinTech company claims that one in three Gen Z individuals learn about personal finance through TikTok and YouTube. They are also five-times more likely to make an investment decision based on what they see on social media.
Zeed’s mobile app, which will launch later this month, will enable users to watch educational video content on investment trends and general financial knowledge.
In the future, the company plans to allow users to invest directly in UK and US equities in a TikTok-style feed.
Zeed co-founder and CEO Salman Hussain said, “One of the biggest barriers faced by Gen-Z investors is developing the knowledge and confidence to decide what to invest in. More investors want autonomy over how they invest their money, especially when it comes to themes like ESG and impact investing.
“Communicating these financial concepts clearly has become even more important. We produce TikTok-style short-form content to make that part of the journey effortless and engaging, working with financial institutions and verified content creators.â€
A report from Hargreaves Lansdown found that 56% of 18-34-year-olds who invest get ideas from social media channels, namely, TikTok, Reddit, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
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